Why are old wine desireble but other alcoholic beverages have a best before date?
In: 40
Wine bottles are not fully airtight. The porous cork allows tiny amounts of oxygen into the bottle over time. The super slow oxidation of the wines gives them an arc of aging as phenols develop, and as malic acid & citric acid get slowly converted into acetic acid. Wines will become pleasantly oxidized, then overly oxidized, and finally turn to vinegar.
The desirability stems from two main points. 1, The wine becomes less available over time due to consumption. And 2, people want old wines for their complexity and are willing to pay someone else to be patient and do the aging for them.
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